The Influence of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the Economic Essay

The Influence of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the Economic Growth of the Host Economies - Essay Example ects of FDI on financial development in have nations significantly rely on the neighborhood conditions and settings of working together there: for instance, human capital improves the beneficial outcomes of FDI on have economies, while the current innovation holes cause it conceivable to actualize even to the least complex remote direct speculation changes (Wang, Gu, Tse and Yim, 2012). Added to this is the job which market size plays in pulling in FDI to have nations, though innovation absorptive capacities foreordain have comes back from FDI (Li and Liu 2005; Blalock and Gertner 2008). These outcomes have broad ramifications for arrangement advancement and execution, albeit all dangers and variables changing the idea of FDI inflows to have nations should be completely thought of. Much all the more intriguing are the aftereffects of another investigation led in the three significant nations beneficiaries of FDI. These incorporate Malaysia, Chile, and Thailand (Chowdury and Mavrotas 2007). Once more, the analysts affirm that the impacts of FDI on monetary development are heterogeneous and essentially rely fair and square of GDP in have nations (Chowdury and Mavrotas 2007). In any event in Thailand and Malaysia, the connection among GDP and FDI is express (Chowdury and Mavrotas 2007). Once more, these discoveries have extensive ramifications for policymaking, since understanding causality among FDI and financial development is vital for the production of arrangements that energize the inflow of ventures from abroad in the creating scene. The two examinations affirm the significance of the FDI-financial development causality yet additionally infer that the idea of this causality and its course ought to be set under expert investigation. For whatever length of time that the impacts of FDI on monetary development in have nations are described by considerable...This paper traces the troubles in building up the practical connections of FDI effect on financial develop ment in have nations. Probably the best issue in this regard is the absence of adequate exact information. Another trouble is the sloppiness and poor systematization of the current information. Hypothetically, FDI advances monetary development through an expansion in venture volumes, prompting expanded proficiency of all monetary and budgetary activities. Another hypothesis proposes that monetary development is an immediate aftereffect of the innovative dispersions brought about by FDI. Impartially, there is no single clarification with the impacts of FDI on monetary development: various factors moderate the connection among FDI and financial development in have nations, and the present information on money related markets and full scale/microeconomics doesn't permit creating a far reaching hypothesis of FDI and its effects on have countries’ economies. So as to see how and why FDI impacts have countries’ monetary development, the significance of the two terms should be explained. For the objective of this paper, outside direct venture is characterized as â€Å"the process whereby occupants of one nation (the source nation) gain responsibility for to control the creation, dispersion, and different exercises of a firm in another nation. FDI impacts monetary development through basic impacts, ability and innovation, and size impacts. TNC assume a colossal job in the exchange of capitals and aptitudes starting with one nation then onto the next.

Utopian Society Essays - Fiction, Literature, Political Philosophy

Idealistic Society Essays - Fiction, Literature, Political Philosophy Idealistic Society The idealistic culture in The Handmaid?s Tale by Margaret Atwood is altogether different from what a great many people would think about an idealistic culture. The intensity of this general public rests upon a little level of the populace. In this general public, men are better than the ladies. Ladies have for all intents and purposes no rights or state in what goes on in their lives and ladies with rights are just a couple. This general public was made by an amazing rare sorts of people who had the option to oust the administration by executing the president and congress. These individuals at that point suspended everyone?s protected rights and utilized dread to prevent anybody or gathering from compromising their control. At that point they assumed responsibility for ladies by halting their privileges to possess property Women have little significance in this world but to serve men, have youngsters, or teach new handmaids. Ladies are isolated into various gatherings with specific l adies having more force than others. This book was composed to demonstrate individuals what it is to resemble when you are a resident o! f an extremist government. Margaret Atwood made this world to show individuals a couple of reasons. She needed to show how individuals may act on the off chance that they had no rights and had everything detracted from them. This is clear on the grounds that the story is delineated through the eyes and brain of a handmaid, the individual with the least measure of rights. The handmaids in the story were the primary line of handmaids. The majority of them had families, kids, assets, and rights before they were changed over to handmaids. The book was additionally composed to show individuals what their lives may be if an extremist government is in power. In contrast to other authoritarian governments, religion is bolstered by the state. Individuals who don't have confidence in the state embraced religion are executed. Likewise, certain researchers and specialists are slaughtered on the off chance that they practice premature births or utilize certain clinical systems. Margaret Atwood is attempting to show individ uals that this kind of government could be the following way in American culture if things proceed go a similar way they are! going. I feel that the time before the upheaval isn't as awful as it was delineated. There are not freak babies being conceived, atomic emergencies, or men having absolute control of ladies. I don't imagine that this general public would have the option to be established right now. In the twentieth century, such a large number of individuals have attempted to get reasonable treatment in America and I don't believe that these individuals would lounge around while their privileges are being detracted from them. Additionally different nations presumably would have stepped in so an extremist government would not be established. Margaret Atwood had the novel end the manner in which it accomplished for a couple of reasons. First to show that this legislature didn't succeed, similar to each other extremist government ever in presence. She likewise needed to show how different nations reacted to this new government. It likewise left you considering what had happened to Offred and on the off chance that she had the option to escape out of the nation. The Handmaid?s Tale is a novel attempting to show the chance and what an authoritarian government in America could resemble. Just a couple of influential individuals have rights. Ladies have the least measure of rights. Margaret Atwood is disclosing to us that if society all in all proceeds with the manner in which it is going, we are on an intensive lesson to the kind of society she has delineated. By and by, I feel that the general public delineated would never occur in America and on the off chance that it was organized that the individuals would revolt and bring back a majority rule government.

Psychodynamic Theories Essay

As a gathering throughout the most recent couple of weeks we have been dicussing has a gathering the 3 principle hypotheses of advising and after cautious pondering ive picked to do my introduction on the psychodynamic hypothesis. Psychodynamics is the hypothesis and deliberate investigation of the mental powers that underlie human conduct. It is particularly keen on the dynamic relations among cognizant and oblivious inspiration . Psychodynamic treatments rely on a hypothesis of internal clash, wherein curbed practices and feelings surface into the patient’s cognizance; for the most part, one clash is subliminal . Psychodynamics was at first evolved by Sigmund Freud ,Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. By the mid 1940s and into the 1950s, the general use of the â€Å"psychodynamic theory† had been entrenched. When discussing Psychodynamic hypothesis the main name that flies into most people groups heads is Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was Born in Austria on May 6, 1856, Sigmund Freud hypothesized and rehearsed neuropsychology, concentrating first craziness and afterward sexuality. A profoundly questionable scholarly figure of the twentieth century, he contemplated dreams, characterized what he called the Oedipus mind boggling and spread out three phases of juvenile sexual advancement . He stays one of the most compelling figures in today’s world. His name alone represents the significance of his hypotheses, and the name that comes to most people’s heads when saying the word brain science is Sigmund Freud. Freud was a psychodynamic clinician and that originated from Freud’s see on the brain is looking like a chunk of ice. He accepts that mankind’s mind works in the oblivious. Each decision that humankind makes he knows about, however perhaps the outcomes of our activity may be obscure. The Structure of Personality which is another fascinating piece of Freud’s hypothesis essentially expresses that we have an ID, a Superego and an Ego. The ID is an organic store of desires and driving forces that should be delighted. He says the ID doesn't have a cognizant , it follows up on intuition and it searches out satisfaction and joy. It is the delight rule. The Superego is the Morality Principle, and the Superego realizes the distinction among good and bad. The Superego is a lot of scholarly disguised ethics and estimations of society. This isâ basically what holds the ID under wraps. Freud said that Superego is our cognizant, and that the Superego is the most useful asset (blame and pride). To wrap things up is the Ego, which is the truth standard. The Ego finds socially satisfactory approaches to fulfill the ID. It finds the harmony between the ID and reality. The elements of the Ego is to discover a trade off between the ID and the Superego. The Ego should likewise figure out how to manage uneasiness, and it additionally assists with boosting the confidence. Without the Ego there would be no psychological well-being. In the wake of examining Freud’s hypothesis of the Structure of Personality I feel we have various pieces of our conduct that we can control and that we are cognizant about and there are different practices that come straightforwardly from our oblivious . Our personality deceives us, denies, misrepresents, and mutilates reality which thus makes us make what Freud likes to call the seven guard instruments. The first of the seven protection components is Repression. Constraint pushes the issue to the inner mind. It is the avoidance of driving forces and musings from the cognizant brain. Next comes Denial, and refusal is the cutting of the cognizant brain from outside dangers. ANTHONY BILLSON 5. 2 PAGE 3 A case of this would be the point at which you are strolling in the shopping center with your better half and a wonderful lady strolls by and you look however when your sweetheart asks you state, â€Å"I wasn’t taking a gander at her. † Next there is a safeguard system called Sublimation which is the changing of terrible conduct and motivations into socially satisfactory conduct and driving forces. One case of this could be playing football for a grant so as to head off to college. Another safeguard instrument is Reaction Formation which is an advancement of conduct inverse of that which brings you nervousness . The following instrument is called Projection whichis when the oblivious attribution of your considerations and emotions is brought onto others. Discovering defects in others is a genuine case of Projection. Uprooting is the following safeguard instrument, and this is the point at which an inclination is set onto another article. Taking out annoyance onto others when you should be frantic at yourself. To wrap things up is the resistance instrument of Rationalization which is giving a valid justification instead of the genuine explanation. Another notable analyst which is really an understudy of Freuds’ is Carl Jung who is likewise a psychodynamic therapist, Carl Jung was brought into the world July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland and he went somewhat more profound than Freud did in his speculations and he challenges a portion of his thoughts. One is that Jung’s chunk of ice is straight up and at the highest point of the ice sheet is the inner self, and the level underneath that is the individual oblivious, and the last degree of the ice sheet is at last the aggregate oblivious which is nearly the specific alternate extremes of Freud’s. What I mean by more profound is that he feels that man isn't simply sexual however otherworldly too. He says that the significant contrast in man depends on the Libido which is your sex drive. As should be obvious Jung has an a lot more extensive degree of human intrigue. Jung speculations are firmly founded on Darwin’s hypothesis of Evolution. Jung thinks we developed typically which has permitted us to flourish and push ahead so as to stay aware of society. The following piece of Carl Jung’s hypothesis is the Archetypal Complex, which are basic methods of managing the world. As such it’s a hereditarily transmitted reaction system. It guarantees endurance. There are two instances of Archetypal Complexes and they are the foe model and the social prime example. . There are models in regular daily existence when an individual doesn't have the foggiest idea what something is they promptly give a type of hostility or dissatisfaction which demonstrates they fear what is extraordinary or what they don't generally have a clue or comprehend. The social paradigm essentially implies quality in numbers. Likewise the social original is the thing that we look to for help and hope to cooperate and associate with. The reaction technique is to build up a need to acclimate. With the entire thought of Archetypal Complexes various individuals utilize various approaches to manage the world’s issues, and foe model couldn't be increasingly exact about humankind being undermined by something that is unique. The following piece of Jung’s hypothesis is the possibility of Individuation which is the coordination of our cognizant view of the outside world with our oblivious prototype encounters. Polarities, which are inverse limits, which ties in the Principle of entropy which, is a condition of confusion and an arbitrariness of vitality. The exact opposite thing Jung states in his hypothesis is the possibility of completeness which is having the two polarities of our life met. Carl Jung’s hypothesis challenges quite a bit of Freud’s, however somehow or another is comparable. Jung gets more into man being more profound than sexual which is nearly something contrary to Freud. The following analyst that I will specify will be a social psychodynamic clinician by the name of Alfred Adler. Adler was conceived on February 7, 1870 and Adler’s hypothesis expresses that we all are brought into the world with a feeling of mediocrity as prove by how feeble and powerless an infant is. ANTHONY BILLSON 5. 2 PAGE 4 By this, Adler had the option to clarify that this mediocrity is a critical piece of our character, as in it is the main thrust that pushes us to endeavor so as to get predominant. Notwithstanding the Inferiority Theory of Personality, Adler additionally considers birth request as a main consideration in the advancement of our character. He accepted that initially conceived kids may feel sub-par and may even create feeling of inadequacy once their more youthful kin shows up. The center conceived youngsters, then again, are not as spoiled as their more established or more youthful kin, however they have a feeling of prevalence over depose their more seasoned kin in a solid rivalry. In this way they have the best potential to be effective throughout everyday life. The most youthful kids may feel like they have minimal capacity to impact different individuals from the family. Since they are regularly the most spoiled, they may create character issues of mediocrity simply like the main conceived. He was substantially less of a cynic than Freud was; Almost a direct inverse from Freud. Adler accepted that society blocks people. His perspective on the psyche is a lot of like Carl Jung’s, yet as opposed to having the personality at the top he has the cognizant at the top with the oblivious on the base. He felt that social interests drive inspiration, which is an intrinsic drive to be social and to have a place. He additionally expressed in his hypothesis that humanity is reliant on others and their responses and their acknowledgment which thusly leaves humankind entirely powerless. The fundamental thought of this hypothesis is that he feels that humankind is more social than organic. An incredible model ofthis would be that in today’s schools there are inner circles and factions of various individuals that vibe that they are cooler or preferable and over the individuals who are not as famous do whatever they can to fit in with a specific gathering. Youngsters these days are most likely the best model there is of Adler’s hypothesis of social intrigue. Another piece of Adler’s hypothesis that he raises is simply the possibility of the innovative which he says drives us toward human instinct. There are two sections to this hypothesis and they are the prevalence complex and the feeling of inadequacy. As a matter of first importance the prevalence complex states humanity attempts over better itself so as to beat our shortcomings. The second piece of this hypothesis is the feeling of inadequacy which is when society measures

Samsung Wave-Ii Marketing Plan

[pic] Samsung Wave-II Smart Phone Marketing Plan and methodology Principles of Marketing EIB-507 Prepared By: MD. Ashif Hossain Roll-80104045 International Business, EMBA University Of Dhaka Prepared For: MD. Kamal Uddin,Ph. D Associate Professor Executive outline Mobile telephone, which is characterized as a high innovation electronic item, is well known everywhere throughout the world. Bangladesh must be perhaps the greatest market for those cell phone makers. As a pioneer in portable media communications advertise, Samsung has its logical business system that prompts achievement, and gives an extraordinary consideration to the market of Bangladesh. In light of the Bangladesh cell phone advertise, this paper examines Samsung’s business system to show reason of Samsung’s achievement. The business system incorporates the key plan, the serious technique and advertising blend. The vital idea of Samsung is to take the interest side system. Samsung partitions the entire market into a few target markets as per the inquires about the prejudices of various people. And afterward various sorts of cell phones are placed into the market planned for pulling in various purchaser gatherings. The serious methodology of Samsung is to improve the inventive capacity to win the upper hand. Solid mechanical development capacity makes Samsung remain in the forward situation of portable industry constantly, and described this brand by a unique essentialness. What's more, the showcasing blend of Samsung is to utilize the incorporated advertising procedure including item, value, advancement and spot. It esteems the development of a brand, the direction of its items and gives a ton of consideration to innovation improvement. It builds the deals through touchy commercial, introduction to the VIPs and enormous scope diversion. Current Market Situation Increasingly, we are seeing that handsets are following the example of ordinary customer hardware; the pattern is toward telephones with improved highlights at lower costs. At the same time, there are more makers who will convey less expensive handsets to catch the mass market. Multifunction mobile phones, email gadgets are progressively mainstream today. Contact screen telephone is a lot of alluring in light of the fact that it is Very much simple to utilize and individuals can peruse the site like they peruse in a PC. Rivalry is thusly increasingly exceptional. So it is effectively obvious that there will be monstrous interest for such telephones later on. To pick up piece of the overall industry in the dynamic condition, Samsung should cautiously target Specific portions with highlights that convey benefits esteemed by every client gathering. Market Description Samsung Wave II contact cushion phone’s essential objective shoppers are youngsters. It is a lot of appealing for understudy due to it’s wide touch screen which could be utilized as a hand Held palmtop. It bolsters Wi-Fi innovation so individuals can move their archives and other significant document through this telephone like a workstation. In the possibility of Bangladesh individuals can without much of a stretch screen the Stock market development through its rapid Internet innovation. Different clients are business visionaries and experts. It is a lot of modest in contrast and an apple I-telephone. Item Review The Samsung Wave II S8530 (or â€Å"Samsung Wave II†) is the Successor f Samsung Wave S8500 cell phone running the bada 1. 2 working framework structured by Samsung, which was industrially discharged on October, 2010. [1][2][3] The Wave is a thin touchscreen telephone fueled by Samsung's â€Å"Hummingbird† CPU (S5PC110), which incorporates 1 GHz ARM Cortex-8 CPU and a ground-breaking worked in PowerVR SGX 540 illustrations motor, â⠂¬Å"Super LCD† screen and 720p top quality video catch capacities. Our Product Samsung Wave II PDA offers the accompanying standard highlights With a bada 1. 2 working framework Hardware highlights Calling †The speakerphone is extraordinary. It was uproarious and clear. Gathering calling was additionally simple. When you've put your subsequent call, a symbol appears to meeting the two calls. It can associated 20 calls without a moment's delay and experienced no difficulty trading and dropping people from the gathering. Plan The telephone is made of for the most part metal compound and is estimated at 10. 9â mm thick. As far as structure factor, it is a record style highlighting just 3 physical fastens on the front: call, dismiss/shutdown, and primary menu button. The ergonomically planned body likewise makes it increasingly agreeable to hold. Screen The screen is a 3. - inch (94â mm) capacitive touchscreen Super LCD with an enemy of smirch oleophobic covering on the scratch-safe safety glass (Gorilla Glass Display) contact board which has been demonstrated to be equipped for opposing outrageous rubbing (scratch-safe). The screen goals is 800ãâ€"480 WVGA. [4] Processor The telephone includes a 1 GHz SoC,[5] which ins ide contains an ARM Cortex A8 CPU center that is indistinguishable from the ARM Cortex CPU center utilized in Apple's A4 bundle on bundle SoC. [6][7] The Phone designs motor is SGX 540 which is supposed to be equipped for producing 90 million triangles for every second (same as the SoC utilized on the Samsung Galaxy S). Furthermore, 512MB RAM (same equipment as Samsung Wave S8500). Camera The telephone includes a 5 megapixel which underpins 2592 x 1944 pixels, alongside self-adjust, LED streak, Geo-labeling, face, squint identification, picture adjustment, contact focus,etc. Other than these highlights it has different shooting modes, for example, magnificence shot, grin shot, ceaseless, display and vintage shot. As a camcorder it can shoot 720p HD recording (1280ãâ€"720) at 30 FPS with streak. Just as this, it is additionally ready to record moderate movement video (320ãâ€"240) at 120 FPS with streak. Different highlights Other component incorporates A-GPS, 2 GB/8 GB of interior stockpiling with a microSDHC opening for an extra 32 GB. It additionally has a magnetometer, a closeness sensor, an accelerometer, 5. 1-channel encompass sound Mobile Theater, music acknowledgment, a phony call administration, brilliant pursuit, Social Hub and it is the primary telephone to help Bluetooth form 3. 0. Notwithstanding Bluetooth 3. 0, the telephone additionally includes Wi-Fi 802. 11 b/g/n, HSDPA 3. 2 Mbit/s and HSUPA 2 Mbit/s. This telephone is accessible with both European/Asia 3G bandings and the North American 3G bandings. Programming Features User Interface The telephone is one of only a handful few cell phone to highlight the Samsung bada working framework stage. The UI is Samsung's own Touchwiz 3. 0. Touchwiz 3. 0, similar to the 2 ancestors (Touchwiz 2. 0 and Touchwiz), uses gadgets. The 3 most prominent gadgets pre-introduced in Touchwiz 3. 0 are Daily Briefing (which incorporates all fundamental data, for example, climate, money, AP portable news and calendar), Feeds and Updates and Buddies now (which permits clients to call, send writings to and read Facebook/Twitter channels off their preferred contacts). Clients are permitted to have up to 10 homescreens to include gadgets. Applications regarding Internet Browser, Samsung Wave is pre-introduced with Dolphin Browser v2. 0 (in view of WebKit). While this program bolsters Flash it is crippled naturally to improve page load time. As a matter of course, the telephone accompanies Picsel Viewer which is equipped for perusing . pdf and Microsoft Office document positions. Clients from chose nations can purchase and download Picsel Office Editor from Samsung Apps. With respect to Samsung applications, clients can likewise download applications, games and gadgets from the application store. Other programming incorporates the GPS programming that accompanies this telephone (LBS Route 66), Palringo IM, Facebook, Twitter, social center point, smaller than normal journal, every day preparation, notice, video player, FM radio, media program, voice recorder, email and pre-introduced asphalt5. Media Support MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, AMR, WAV, MP4, FLAC, MPEG4, H. 263, H. 264, WMV, AVI, DivX, XviD, MK Competitive OVERVIEW Players There are right now four levels of players in the handset advertise:  · Tier 1: Nokia, Samsung and Apple  · Tier 2: Motorol and Ericsson  · Tier 3: Alcatel, Siemens and so forth  · Tier 4: the rest Nokia cleared into the market, surpassing both Motorola and Ericsson to accomplish the biggest handset deals during 1998. Samsung after a concise battle against Nokia and apple at long last got a huge portion of client. The disappointment of Motorola to move from simple to computerized and of Ericsson to seek after in vogue structures empowered Nokia’s advertise position to improve. From that point forward, both Motorola and Ericsson have been forcefully playing make up for lost time, endeavoring to use their qualities in innovation and semiconductors to assault Nokia’s share in the general world market. Level 3 organizations take into account a lower-end, lower-edge advertise. Relative absence of economies of scale, item range, and brand value make advertise predominance or even equality a troublesome test for these littler players. Be that as it may, Samsung †with its new a la mode plan and innovation †is all around situated in the developing advanced mobile phone advertise, and is fit for undermining the bigger two organizations (nokia and apple). Think about between Samsung Wave-II and I-telephone Because the enormous piece of market section who inclines toward Smartphone is caught by the apple’s I-telephone. We ought to have a total information what the I-telephone offers just as Samsung wave-II [pic] |[pic] | |Features |Apple I-telephone |Samsung Wave-II | |Overview |Touchscreen, Scratch Resistant Oleophobic Surface, |LCD Capacitive Touchscreen,Scratch Resistant Oleophobic| | |Multi Touch Input Method, Three Axis Gyro Sensor, |Surface,Accelerometer Sensor for Auto-pivot, | |MicroSIM card bolster just, 5 MP Camera, TV-out, |Handwriting recognition,Multi-contact Input Method,5 MP | |Audio/Video player, Data Transfer 3G, EDGE, GPS, |Camera,MP4 Player,Stereo FM | |Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, HTML Browser, Google Maps |radio,TV-Out,3G,EDGE,GPS,Bluetooth,Wi-Fi ,HTML | |Browser,Bada OS | |Operating System |iOS 4 (in light of Mac OS) |Bada OS 1. | |Processor Speed |1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 p

The Go Home Button

For as long as I can remember, I have always celebrated Thanksgiving at my house. My mother always invited our family over for a huge dinner that took hours to prepare. After returning from the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, she and my father promptly locked themselves in the kitchen, chopping, dicing, and blending ingredients with precision. Meanwhile, my brother and I always found ourselves with a vacuum in one hand and Swiffer in another, chasing away dust and throwing errant toys into the closets or under sofas. Our relatives usually arrived around three in the afternoon; with gifts for me and my brother and dishes that my mother placed in the refrigerator and conveniently forgot to serve (my aunt’s lasagna always resembled a giant brownie). We began to eat at five and our dinner usually lasted until eight but nobody really left the table until eleven, all of us too stuffed to move. That night, my aunts and uncles would sleep in either my brother’s be droom or mine, while he and I shared inflatable mattresses in the living room with our cousins. The following morning we all woke up at eleven, watching an old made-for-TV movie and eating leftovers. This year, however, was different. My eldest cousin, Sam, had just bought an apartment in Billerica, Massachusetts, a sleepy bed-and-breakfast town north of Cambridge. My mother, tired of standing elbow deep in sauce in the kitchen for hours, urged him to hold Thanksgiving in his new home, so as to have a quasi-housewarming party as well. He agreed. The ride up to Billerica from New York was uneventful. It took us five hours, my father maintaining a steady speed of sixty miles per hour which, according to him, is very fast. It had just snowed, and the evergreen Pines on either side of the highway were beautiful, dusted with confectioner’s sugar. The radio promised that the winter storms would take a brief hiatus, snow was not to be expected for another three weeks. We bel ieved it. My parents are usually hesitant when it comes to taking long road trips for a single reason: directions, or rather the lack of good directions. My childhood is dotted with memories of my family and me in a car on our way to Niagara Falls, Lake Erie, or Cape May. These road trips were long and often resulted in our car pulled over on the side of the road at eleven o’clock in the night while my mom tiredly studied a road map, ignoring my dad’s reminders that using the car’s indoor light would kill the battery. Directions have never been my family’s strong point. Whenever our friends moved out of state, to some remote part of Pennsylvania or New Jersey my parents would always promise to visit but never did, knowing that such trips were impossible when you cannot differentiate the Garden State from the Northern State. This all changed last year, when my parents bought a Garmin Global Positioning System. For a mere three hundred dollars, my par ents had solved their traveling problems. Equipped with turn-by-turn directions to anywhere in the continental United States, lists of restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping centers available at our fingertips the GPS soon became a part of our family. We took it everywhere or rather we took her everywhere. The GPS doesn’t just list driving directions on its four and half by five inch screen; it says them in a soft female voice that speaks thirteen different languages. â€Å"Turn left in four hundred feet,† she would say. â€Å"Make a right at the next stop sign,† she would advise. â€Å"Arriving at destination, on right!† she would exclaim proudly, commending my father for his brilliant driving. Whenever a wrong turn was made, or an exit was missed my parents were instantly reassured as she would instantly recalculate a new set of directions. My family was enamored with her, especially my younger brother who used her to prove that there wer e in fact Taco Bells in New Jersey (my parent’s excuse that fast food chains only existed in New York was the only loss we suffered from the acquisition of our GPS). In time, I no longer had a younger brother, but a younger sister too. Named by my brother, her name was Pilotta and was loved by my parents for her ability to help them avoid tolls. Pilotta helped us get to Billerica in one piece. Thanksgiving at my cousin’s was fun. The ride back home, I’m sorry to say, was anything but. Empowered by Pilotta, my parents were invincible on the road. No longer did they fear making a wrong turn, or adventuring to an out-of-the-way landmark that was nowhere near any form of civilization but was advertised as a â€Å"fascinating look into our nation’s history.† My parents no longer packed sandwiches and water bottles on long car rides. They knew perfectly well that if hunger should befall on our family, we could easily find a restaurant. They no lo nger panicked when the gas gauge read almost empty for with the touch of a screen they could easily find a gas station. Fearless, my parents made the brilliant decision to visit Harvard University on our way back home from Billerica. The plan was Pilotta would take us to Cambridge, find us a reasonably priced hotel, and after a day, take us home again. The plan was, to them, fool proof. My father had been anxious to visit Harvard for years. Since he first came to the United States, it was his dream that one of his children would one day attend Harvard, become a lawyer, and make a gajillion dollars. This dream fell upon me. I was less than thrilled at my parents plan. It seemed like the weather wasn’t too thrilled either. As soon as we crossed Billerica’s city limits, it began to rain. â€Å"Obstructive weather ahead,† Pilotta advised. My parents thanked her. It lightly drizzled for an hour. All the while my father listed the benefits of going to Harv ard. â€Å"They give full financial aid to qualified students,† he explained. â€Å"Once you get admission, you’ll be set for life.† The rain fell softly on the moon roof; a low, steady staccato filled the inside of the SUV, coupled with the shrill music of my brother’s video game. â€Å"Harvard is the number one college in the country,† said my father. My mother was reading a novel, but looked anxiously between the two of us. â€Å"You know dad,† I said, â€Å"Princeton is actually ranked number one.† As soon as the words left my mouth, we heard the roaring sounds of thunder and lightning. The rain began to fall harder, the echoing staccato reverberated through the SUV, making what once seemed spacious and big cramped and suffocating like a nuclear submarine. â€Å"No Geetika,† my father said, frustrated at my failure to agree, â€Å"Harvard has a name.† I never liked talking about college, especially w ith my parents. It didn’t matter that I actually harbored a small desire for Harvard; I had an even bigger fear of not getting in to a good, ivy-league school. I wanted to postpone the talk of college for as long as possible and hated whenever my father broached the subject. Slowly, the fear of failure swept through me, the idea of me going to a (heaven forbid) state school crippled my senses. The sound of the rain pounded in my ears, and the shrill sounds of Mario saving Princess Peach in my brother’s video game suddenly became too much. My mother saw it coming. â€Å"Geetika†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she warned. But it was too late. â€Å"Harvard is a stupid school!† I yelled. â€Å"I’m not going to apply! I’m going to†¦I think†¦ I want to†¦Boston College is just as good!† This was too much for my father. He turned around to look at me, â€Å"do you know how much sacrifice we made†¦?† My dad missed the exit we were supposed to take to get to Cambridge. â€Å"Recalculating directions,† Pilotta said softly, but we couldn’t hear her because my mother was now quasi-yelling at my father. â€Å"You’re always pushing for Harvard,† she said, â€Å"What about Columbia? It’s any ivy school, and it’s close to home. Do you want Geetika to be five hours away from me?† My father’s face twitched, trying hard not to reveal that he secretly agreed with her. â€Å"We need to give her opportunity!† he said said. â€Å"I don’t want opportunity!† I yelled. My dad clenched the steering wheel with his two fists and scrambled to make a right turn. â€Å"We will go to Harvard,† he said. â€Å"You will tour the campus. You will meet the admissions officer. You will take her email address. And then you’ll apply.† â€Å"But I don’t want to!† I yelled back. â€Å"You’re always pushing me! I hate it!† â€Å"Geetika!†my mom admonished. â€Å"Don’t talk like that to your dad! You will apply to Columbia!† â€Å"Damn college!† I swore. And then all hell broke loose. The rain turned to a disgusting mixture of snow, sleet, and hail. Cars were skidding on either side of us and as nighttime fell we could barely see the vehicle in front of us. â€Å"I’m huuuuungry,† my brother wailed. â€Å"My head huuuuuuurts.† â€Å"Be quiet!† we all said as he started to yell. â€Å"We did so much,† said my father, barely thinking of what he was saying, none of us were, â€Å"and look at how she treats us. You’ve spoiled her!† â€Å"I spoiled her?† my mother screeched. â€Å"You’re the one who filled her head with thoughts of leaving home. She should go to Columbia so she’ll be close to me.† â€Å"Arriving at destination, on right,† said Pilotta, indicati ng that Harvard was only seconds away. My father didn’t hear her, he made a left turn. â€Å"What did you do that for?† My mother asked. â€Å"I’m distracted,† said my father. â€Å"You wouldn’t be if you both just left me alone,† I said. All of a sudden the car skidded to the left and hit a snow bank. â€Å"We’re going to die! We’re going to die! We’re going to die! We’re going to die!† My brother yelled. My dad got out of the car to make sure there was no damage. My mom turned around and asked if my brother and I were alright. My dad got back in the car and turned on the ignition. With a deep breath he touched Pilotta’s screen and clicked his way through a series of menus. He reached the icon he was looking for. He pressed it and Pilotta declared immediately, â€Å"Make a left.† My dad turned around the car and proceeded to drive home. The only sound in the car was P ilotta’s soft voice, telling my dad how to get the five of us home. I turned around in the seat to look out my window and I saw the tall buildings of Harvard University become smaller and smaller. College, the future, everything could wait. The â€Å"Go Home† button had saved us.

Intellectual capital has become a key asset - Free Essay Example

The Ability to Learn Faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage There is less to fear from outside competition then from inside inefficiency, miscalculation, lack of knowledge. Beat your competitors with the knowledge edge! Train your staff! ÂÂ  A person who graduated yesterday and stops studying today is uneducated tomorrow Competitive Strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals to deliver a unique mix of value. Michael E Porter Competitive Advantage is the Base for any Successful Business Strategies of Companies. We can create this competitive advantage through many routes. One such route is Knowledge Management. Why do we require Competitive Advantage? Competitive Advantage is required to have an edge over the competitors for attracting customers and protecting itself from the competitors. Companies need to Invest on Knowledge Management for creating sustainable competitive advantage which is the most dependable contributor to above-average profitability. In ever changing market place, where only certainty is uncertainty, corporate success come from consistently creating, disseminating and using new knowledge. Globalization, transformation of the enterprise, emergence of digital firm, and transformation of industrial economies are four powerful worldwide changes which have altered the business environment .Today business view is shifting from a product-centric to a knowledge-centr ic view. Companies cannot afford to under invest in using, reusing and losing knowledge that they already have. In this rapidly changing business environment, intellectual capital has become a key asset of the enterprise. The ability of companies to exploit their intangible assets has become far more decisive than their ability to invest and manage their physical assets .By managing its knowledge assets, an enterprise can improve its competitiveness and adaptability and increase its chances of success. Organizations are discovering that they need to do a better job of capturing, distributing, sharing, preserving, securing, and valuing this precious knowledge in order to stay ahead of their competition .Changing business environment has created need for the effective and efficient knowledge management. India can not lag behind in this knowledge revolution hence many Indian companies have started their knowledge management programs. This has initiated a basis for this study to be c arried out to understand knowledge management in Indian organization. This paper is part of larger study which I had undertaken to study KM in Indian organizations. Knowledge Life Cycle Model Defining Knowledge and Knowledge Management Knowledge is a whole set of intuition, reasoning, insights, experiences related to customers, products, processes, markets, competition and so on that enable effective action. Knowledge Management is a systematic, organized, explicit and deliberate ongoing process of creating, disseminating, applying, renewing and updating the knowledge for achieving organizational objectives . Knowledge management has three basic elements: 1. Generation of new knowledge 2. Dissemination of the knowledge 3. Application of the knowledge Basic Knowledge Processes WORLD ORGANIZATION OUTCOME Individual /Team Community Acquire Produce Integrate Knowledge Organizational Information/ Knowledge Learning Knowledge Training Validate Instruct/present Research or create knowledge. Published new Or knowledge Structure/Store Patented Knowledge. Information Expose to best Practices. Share Knowledge. A checklist for unlocking corporate knowledge 1. Business needs-and the kinds of knowledge required to fulfill them have to be identified first before tools and processes are implemented. Many initiatives have failed where technology has dictated knowledge management (KM). 2. Successful KM is about shifting culture and behavior-technology is an important element, but is subsidiary. Data Information Knowledge Action Results Technology Business Value Approach Approach SUPPLY DEMAND The DIKAR Model 3. A basic mechanism in large organizations is also one of the most effective: keeping tabs on who knows what-and how to get in touch with them. 4. Though improving, KM tools are often too complicated: they have to be delivered in a way executives and staff want to use them, and to adapt to the areas/depth of knowledge needed by the individual. 5. Markets, customers, technology and competition are continually changing; knowledge gets stale fast. Is the KM framework able to handle change? 6. Can the organization track whether knowledge is being acted on, and what value is gained from it? Even where knowledge flows quite efficiently round an organization, companies can often do more to ensure information is acted on. 7. Is there a means to learn from experience- good and bad-and share that learning when a similar situation occurs? A vast amount of resource is wasted in corporations just by unwittingly repeating the same mistakes, or failing to repeat useful discoveries. 8. Who leads KM? Many large organizations now have a dedicated head of KM, or at least a high-ranking sponsor, to ensure the right collaborative environment. 9. Bulletin boards and web logs have begun to prove their worth to a range of organizations: they supply an instant exchange of learning or can be used by executives to communicate and keep their ear to the ground. 10. You can only get people to volunteer knowledge-you cant force it. However, firms that provide forums, tools and opportunities for informal networking can encourage employees actively to share knowledge. Leveraging three types of knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Manage Phase As Body Of As Know-How Know How Informations M the Individual The Team NATURE Explicit Tacit Tacit OF Codifiable Personal Fluid KNOWLEDGE Is can play a part Diffuse Dependent on Packaged team dynamics Diffuse KM ISSUES Finding it Establishing Formal management Validation suitable extraction of essentially free-form Value assessment processes activity Obtaining it at Tight ownership Establishing suitable Reasonable cost Reluctance to impart frameworks and processes Integration with Motivation and reward Members own Own system Experiential so hard perception of their role Making available to to encode Mutual trust need The right population Trust 100% buy-in In the right form Finding suitable way Formal learning Sensible of technology of passing on learning mechanisms Ensuring subsequent Limited role for Dissemination Beneficial use technology Creating and using Knowledge repositories Technology has a Background role COMMON Knowledge about Knowledge (knowing it exists and where: KM ISSUES it s context and hence its importance) Understanding the relevant business context Ownership and buy-in to KM processes Updating and reuse of knowledge Demonstrating causal link between KM activity and business benefit The Indian Pharmaceutical industry The Indian pharmaceutical industry represents a successful high technology based industry, which has witnessed consistent growth over the last three decades. It is the 14th largest in the world accounting for a market of US$ 2.5 billion and 4th largest market by volume. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has developed enough capabilities to make the country self sufficient in health care needs and its export ability makes it a strategic trade sector in the Indian economy. The Indian pharmaceutical industry exports generic drugs to CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries, Africa, and recently to the highly regulated US and European markets. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is characterized by a low degree of concentration; a large number of firms with similar market shares, a low level of RD intensity ratios with a high level of brand proliferation. The need and incentive for innovation was undermined by low purchasing capability of the domestic market along with the ea se of imitation and horizontal product differentiation; features that are representative of an industry behind the technological frontier . The growth of the Indian industry was very slow till 1970. The Patent Act of 1972 and government investment in the drug industry infused life into the domestic pharmaceutical industry. The Act removed the product patents for pharmaceuticals, food and agro-chemicals, allowing patents only for production processes. The statutory term was shortened to seven years on pharmaceutical patents and automatic licensing put in place. It started the era of reverse engineering where firms developed new products by changing their production processes. During the last three decades the large private Indian pharmaceutical firms focused their efforts on reverse engineering oriented process RD, and activity was limited to applying known knowledge, or to making small adjustments in the contents . A few public laboratories under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) also operated in pharmaceutical RD, specifically imitative process RD. Production technologies were well mastered and the lag period between the launch of a new product in its first market and India was thus reduced, in some cases as low as two years. The Indian pharmaceutical industry represents a successful case of indigenous self-reliant development. But the objective of indigenization rather than innovation made RD in Indian pharmaceutical firms more insular, with a knowledge base firmly rooted in imitative reverse engineering process RD. As a result Indian pharmaceutical firms have accumulated extensive knowledge in process RD (synthetic and organic chemistry) but severe weakness in other scientific disciplines like medicinal chemistry and biology. The ease of imitation in reverse engineering further resulted in intense competition among Indian firms for market share, hampering the development of a collaborative web of networks of research institut es, academia and industry . The lack of trust resulting from the weak regulatory environment further prevented the development of research networks. The 1972 Patent Act therefore changed the pattern of competition towards volume / price led competition rather than traditional pharmaceutical competition based on the development of new medical treatments. From 1970 onwards Indian pharmaceutical firms slowly started dominating the domestic market reducing the market share and influence of Western companies. Today the market share of domestic firms is around 60-70% compared to 10% in 1970 . With the signing of WTO agreements, specifically TRIPS in 1994, the Indian industry and market structure is poised to change. In a product patent regime, Indian firms will have to look for new sources of growth in the future and the biggest source will be productive RD, which can deliver patentable innovations. Knowledge Management in Pharmaceutical Industry Pharmaceutical companies need kno wledge management solutions that allow users to store, analyze, interpret and share information as part of coordinated processes. They must also provide ways to collect and manage diverse information, and use it effectively to support decision-making. This means not only text documents, but also non-text files such as molecular structures, gene sequence alignments, images, results tables, entry forms and other information. It also includes links to key internal and external resources, discussion items, key e-mails, external search results, and status and summary reports. The sheer volume of information companies must wrestle with in the course of developing new drugs. Advances in biological and chemical research techniques have caused an explosion in raw data by several orders of magnitude. This compels companies to obtain automated analytic systems to deal with such large portfolios of data. It has also placed a priority on developing and offering timely access to summary inform ation. This requires a range of knowledge, project and portfolio management tools that promote deposition, sharing and coordination, such as: workflows, task lists, intelligent agents, portals at the personal, project and departmental level, advanced query tools, intranet spiders, etc., all of which can be tied together as part of an integrated knowledge management solution. Life science companies, collaborative software tool vendors, and industry consultants all seem to hold out great hope for this something call knowledge management. The reason is simple: With such massive data overload in the life sciences, companies realize it is to their advantage to find better ways to deal with and use this information. To use knowledge as a strategic advantage, life science companies take one of three broad approaches, which can be generically described as follows: Help scientists know whats already been done and by whom = Extract information, relationships, or new insights from exi sting diverse data sources = Capture the expertise and intellectual property of scientists One approach in using knowledge management is to give researchers a means to better understand whats already been done and who did it. A number of knowledge management projects aim to provide scientists and managers with tools that help them stay informed about what is going on within the company. This helps prevent researchers from duplicating a completed experiment or following a nonproductive path that has already been rejected. The worst-case scenario one that happens far too frequently is for a researcher to spend six months eliminating a particular drug candidate, only to find that a colleague had already drawn the same conclusion. Informing researchers that a co-worker is interested in the same topic is one way to avoid such duplication. Such an approach can also reap other benefits namely, time savings. Importance of Knowledge Management in Pharmaceutical Life Sciences Ind ustry The only sustainable competitive advantage of a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company is the organizations ability to efficiently create, protect and commercialize new intellectual property. Leadership in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is less and less about day-to-day clinical testing, manufacturing or sales. While many pharmaceutical companies have extensive expertise in those functions, similar expertise can obtained by contracted out to specialized organizations as CROs. The key competitive advantage for firms is the research and development of new intellectual property that forms the basis of successful research, manufacturing and distribution activities. New intellectual property not only includes the development of new chemical entities that can become INDs; it includes manufacturing techniques, regulatory compliance programs, marketing program design, and so forth. The active sharing of the knowledge held within the organization is essential if n ew intellectual property is to be quickly commercialized and with have a high degree of commercial success. Reducing time-to-market depends on knowledge management. At the same time, knowledge management is necessary to avoid repeated explorations of dead-ends unless knowledge of failures is shared, failures are repeated. Globalization Issues In RD Globalization of research and development requires collaboration across time zones and language barriers. The explicit focus of knowledge management on the sharing and use of knowledge can act to bridge diverse research and development teams. Few industries span the world in their research activities, as does the pharmaceutical industry. Lead synthesis, identification, validation, animal testing, formulation, and human testing can occur in a variety of nations. Sharing of knowledge also has applicability to manufacturing and marketing. The need for global uniformity in good manufacturing practices requires that personnel involved in that aspect exchange ideas to assure the highest quality production. While marketing channels differ across markets, knowledge from one market can have applicability in other, if only to avoid costly errors. Manpower Turnover The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is in a period of rapid change, and employee turnover is increasing due to new opportunities. It is also important that organizational knowledge does not leave with an employee the control aspects of knowledge management can act as an additional safeguard. High turnover of skilled scientists and other experts requires knowledge management in order to retain the key output of professionals: their own increase in knowledge from working within an organization. Every time a professional leaves an organization, they take with them the increase in their own knowledge that occurred during their tenure. Unless active steps are taken to extract that knowledge, synthesize and share it, so that it can be used, organizations lose the most important aspect of an employees contribution. Knowledge Management Solutions Its Challenges While the industry is driving the development of new knowledge management solutions (And finding better solutions to choose from), the industrys biggest challenge is increasingly the user. Many of the human-factor challenges (and costs) of moving to a knowledge management system come from the industrys long dependence on paper and paper processes. Pharmaceutical companies have very detailed, document intensive processes and approval procedures which, when combined with strict FDA rules and the common human-factor challenges, are a bad mix in a very high-stakes game. The biggest issues are proper use of systems to ensure compliance and user acceptance. Access Rights Pharmaceutical companies must have to ensure that only authorized and expected people can access records, and that any actions that they take which impact the records in any way are captured in an audit trail. When it comes to electronic signatures, FDA rules are very strict, so companies must carefully manage who can apply an electronic signature through workflows and password authentication to apply a signature. But they must also make sure that management staff understands that an e-signature is equivalent to signing in ink. Password policies should require that staff acknowledge this. In addition, a system that adds an image of a managers signature to a record, while not required under FDA regulations, reinforces that message. The other major factor is the tendency for employees to write down their passwords, and sometimes share them with colleagues. Rigorous password policies are a necessity to prevent this, but companies must find ways to constantly reinforce the message with employees. User Friendliness Critical information comes from the lab, so pharmaceutical companies must ensure that its easy for lab workers to use and contribute to a knowledge management system, while working in their unique environment. Systems must offer features that allow workers to add data by simple drag-and-drop, or preferably by automatic agents that capture key information and transfer it to the system without extra effort. Ultimately, these workers have to recognize that depositing information into the system is part of their job, like using a lab notebook. But systems can be designed to offer lab workers added value to encourage use of the system. For example, a comprehensive listing of hyperlinks to all available databases and application tools is helpful, but this can be extended by providing online discussion groups and training manuals. A lab protocol repository covering standard and company lab methods and procedures may also be attractive to lab workers, while also serving corporate goals. Th is would include being able to find methods used by other workers in the company to accomplish specific experimental tasks, and ways to search for recognized experts across the company. The Transformation Process of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry from Imitative to Innovative RD Structure In case of pharmaceutical RD, the process and product RD capabilities can be differentiated on the basis of complexities of knowledge base as basic, intermediate and advance level. Based on Bell and Pavit (1992), a basic level innovative capability is taken here as an ability to make minor adaptations to production and assimilate technology to firms environment. Intermediate innovative capability refers to the ability to generate incremental technical change in product design, quality and production processes, it also includes ability to search and evaluate external sources of technology. Advanced innovative capability refers to the ability to generate new products and process innovations. Knowledge base is categorized as simple and complex based on the nature of technological challenges involved in development of products and capabilities to develop those products. Traditionally, pharmaceutical RD has two distinct phases; product research and later, process development for prod uction. Process development occurs in parallel with the product development and is responsible for producing the compound in relatively large quantities, in extremely pure form, at an economically feasible cost and by following all the regulatory requirements. Product development research has two distinct components; discovery and development. In the discovery stage, drug molecules are obtained, screened and promising lead compounds are selected for development. The development stage involves a series of tests to determine safety, efficacy and proper dosage strength and form. The discovery stage represents the innovative phase in the pharmaceutical product RD. Learning or Absorptive Capacity Own R D Technological Knowledge External Knowledge Model of Sources of firms technological knowledge (Source: Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) In case of process RD, the capabilities in reverse engineering, generics RD and new drug delivery systems are mapped as basic, intermediate a nd innovative. Reverse engineering involves copying the manufacturing process using indigenous sources of technology while generic RD includes producing the product with non-infringing and innovative processes. New drug delivery system (NDDS) involves the development of technology to introduce a drug at diseased site in a novel way. New drug delivery system research has definitive and well defined boundaries of complexities. It represents an advance level of capability in terms of formulation research part of the process RD. In case of product RD analogue research, new target or new leads and original NCE research can be characterized as basic, intermediate and advanced level capabilities. Analogue research involves the modification of existing molecule which can provide better efficacy or reduce the side effects of existing molecules. This research involves use of already discovered molecules and targets so the requirements of skills in lead optimization or target validation are limited in it. The intermediate capability in product RD represented by new target or new leads requires higher skills than analogue research. The novelty in terms of new leads or new targets will demand deep knowledge about areas like structure activity relationship. Finally the total original research will involve putting up whole new hypothesis about the disease and its treatment. It will require in-depth knowledge about biological and chemical aspect of disease as well as skills in areas like target validation and lead optimization. In case of a pharmaceutical firm, the product platform can be at many levels. For example, an aggregated classification of a pharmaceutical firm may be as an organic or inorganic molecule form. The other dimension involves the breadth of disease segments targeted. A firm could pursue only organic molecules for say two or three diseases or alternatively it can be one diseased focused firm. The analysis of innovative Indian pharmaceutical fir ms capabilities in process and product RD suggests that in terms of process RD, firm B has acquired advance level of capability in process RD while other firms are at intermediate level. In terms of product RD, firm A has acquired the capabilities to conduct research involving new leads or new molecules whereas other firms are at analogue research stage. This classification of process and product RD capabilities assist in tracking the intricacies involved in transformation of capabilities to move from imitative process RD capability (reverse engineering RD) to innovative process and product capabilities. The difference of knowledge base, organisational processes and capabilities required in imitative RD and innovative RD shows that firm having advance level competencies in imitative process RD may start with no or basic level capabilities in innovative product RD. Innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms have developed basic level of process RD capabilities through imitative RD and as a response to change in patent law innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms are moving towards the development of advance level process and product RD capabilities. This movement involved integration of existing capabilities with newly acquired knowledge but crucially it also involved the unlearning of non-relevant capabilities or rigidities. How Reverse engineering Resulted scientists in discovery of R D? The success in imitative RD drew on branches of chemistry like synthetic chemistry, organic chemistry and basic pharmacology. Firms in their RD laboratories employed organic and synthetic chemist who could reverse engineered any molecule or developed efficient and cheap processes for any patent protected molecule. However, the innovative RD is about motivating scientists to think out of box or think differently in novel and creative way. For example if there is anti-diabetic molecule already in the market, then discovering a different molecule to cure disease with new therapy or fewer side effects and better efficacy. Firm Es head of new drug discover explained for new drug discovery you can get good chemist here but they dont have expertise of how to design molecule, how to look at receptor, how to look at molecular modeling . If you are not trained then its difficult to understand the interactions. IN OUT NEW Mindset Culture of innovation Understanding of the Pharmaceutical a. Short term vision of RD RD management RD b. Domestic market focused mechanism thinking Complimentary technological Research talent Assets: Skills in Pharmacology, Reverse Engineering a. expertise in medicinal Analytical chemistry, process RD experienced scientists in chemistry and biology (for development phase) discovery RD b. Scientists with experience -Sources of knowledge created in product RD through distribution, marketing RD management c. Incentive Schemes for routes in overseas markets Practices Scientists RD Infrastructure a. Resource allocation Product RD Infrastructure b. Project review Existing Relationships with research institutes In-house nature of RD Networking and collaboration capabilities The researching skill required in innovative RD differs from imitative RD in terms of design and conduct of experiments as firm Bs former RD president elaborates the organic chemist in process devel opment lab works on or run the batches of 10 kg or 20 kg whereas in drug discovery laboratories he does the milligram jobs and this switch can be difficult. The process RD is about developing scale intensive manufacturing processes, so experiments involve changing solvents temperature, pressures and studying their impact on the output, safety and cost. Due to working on these parameters scientists creates his own biases and ways of working which are suitable for process RD but becomes irrelevant in innovative product RD. Firm Es head of new drug discovery explains There is this scientist; he was head of one group of the generic people. So I tried this scientist for eight months in new drug discovery, he couldnt able to deliver anything to me. Finally I have to ask him to please go back to generics now. This is my personal experience, with reverse engineering experienced scientists, it is difficult. Innovative RD requires scientists skilled in a wide range of disciplines and scientis ts working in innovative Indian firms lacked the knowledge in those of disciplinary areas. Firm Fs strategic planning director explains what you need is innovative chemistry so which is not same as reverse engineering. So in fact we do not prefer the people in discovery chemistry who have the experience of reverse engineering. If the scientist has done some non-infringing work or he has done some original work then we will take him but not only process development because you just cant take a good process chemist and try to make him a good medicinal chemist or a chemist who is able to deliver on an innovative chemistry or chemistry which he is not done before. Therefore the innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms have not employed process development scientists for new chemical entity research and have hired the product RD experienced scientists or fresh scientists for innovative product RD. Firm Ds RD president suggests I mean they have to break the routines, they are aware about th at. So that is why they have to hire people who are not already mentally set for the routines. RD Projects Management The reverse engineering method of product development required relatively little communication of knowledge across the boundaries of the firm or across disciplines or therapeutic areas within the firm. Firms were organized RD functionally with chemist at the heart of the process and pharmacologist working down stream. However, according to Henderson et al., (1999) innovative pharmaceutical RD needs the exchange of knowledge across the boundaries of the firm and across disciplinary and therapeutic class of boundaries within the firm. The innovative RD requires the input from various disciplinary knowledge bases and success in product RD is linked with organizational ability to integrate knowledge across disciplines. Therefore innovative RD requires different mechanisms to manage, design and review research project than imitative RD. Firm Es head of new drug discovery suggests your mind is set for reverse engineering and to transform that mind into new drug discovery you need to know lot of pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacokinetics. If you know only chemistry, you can not design the molecule. You have to look at the total pharmacology of that particular disease, then bioavailability issue, toxicology issues. This need for integrating different disciplinary knowledge bases shows that the organizational practices and routines accumulated in imitative RD can not be applied in innovative RD. The other important issue is RD infrastructure required for innovative RD. The present RD infrastructure in Indian pharmaceutical firms is adequate for process RD research but will need up-gradation in case of innovative product RD projects. The innovative RD requires the state of the art instrumentation specifically in key disciplines like chemistry and biology. The emergence of drug discovery technologies like combinatorial chemistry or high through put screening has transformed the drug discovery process. Change in Mindset The Need Of The Hour The most important issue that has emerged is mindset to migrate from reverse engineering towards creating and generating innovation led products. Indian pharmaceutical firms have over the year gain immediate returns on the RD investments and mostly competed in domestic market on the basis of cheap albeit efficient production processes. But in case of innovative product RD the life cycle of product development is long and takes 10-15 years. So firm have to be mentally prepared for committing the resources for 8-10 years without returns on those investments. Former RD president of B comments it is a mind set problem; those making profits dont want to invest in product RD. The costs involved in drug discovery and development are really enormous and returns dont come fast. Most of Indian firms have this habit of getting quick returns and so if a firm wants quick return on the investment, its not going to be there. Although the innovative Indian firms have increased RD investments from 1995 but there is wider consensus about potential to increase RD investment. Firm Bs RD vice president defends the gradual increase of RD investment saying that every company needs to develop its own comfort zone of risk and links the issue to the mindset problem. He accepts the difficulty of convincing people to make a commitment of huge investment without any foreseeable returns for 8-10 years, and cite this as a reason for the gradual increase in RD investment. In case of innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms, mindsets shaped by practices of getting immediate return on RD investments, inferior technology and domestic market focused thinking has emerged as one of the main rigidity to move from imitative RD to innovative product RD. Change Required In In-house nature of RD In the reverse engineering era Indian pharmaceutical firms built process RD capabilities in-house as profits were totally linked to the efficient and cheap production process. The intense competition and lack of trust due to weak regularity environment shaped the in-house nature of RD, resulting in total lack of collaborations between industry and academia. However the areas of innovative RD require contribution from various disciplinary areas like medicinal chemistry, biology and pharmacology which are advancing at an extraordinary rapid rate. The scientists working in innovative RD need to be current with a wide range of specialized knowledge. The Indian pharmaceutical firms are chemistry based but biological knowledge and talent in India is concentrated in research institutes like Indian Institute of Sciences, National Institute of Immunology, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and others. The analysis points out that in case of Indian pharmaceutical firms the main rig idities that have emerged are a. imitative RD organizational routines, b. in-house nature of RD and c. organizational mindset shaped by short term vision of RD investments and domestic market focused approach. The difference of knowledge base, organizational practices in imitative and innovative RD implies that the processes and capabilities that served firm well in the past may not be relevant in new environment. According to Leonard Barton (1994) core rigidities are flip side of core capabilities and represent the gap between current environmental requirements and a firms core capabilities. The deeply embedded knowledge system sets actively create problems and so the firm has to get rid of these rigidities. In case of Indian pharmaceutical firms the important part of learning is unlearning or forgetting the past behavior, which is redundant or unsuccessful. Hedberg (1981) points out that knowledge grows and simultaneously it becomes obsolete as reality changes. Unders tanding involves both learning new knowledge and discarding obsolete and misleading knowledge. The discarding activity unlearning is as important part of understanding as adding in new knowledge and slow unlearning is crucial weakness of many organizations in development of new capabilities. So in case of innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms getting rid of rigidities accumulated in reverse engineering era formed the important part of learning in development of innovative RD capabilities. The analysis of innovative pharmaceutical firms suggests that RD infrastructure, complimentary manufacturing and marketing assets, linkages with research institutes and understanding about the pharmaceutical RD are relevant capabilities in innovative RD. In addition to that firms added new knowledge in key product RD disciplines like medicinal chemistry, biology and build product RD infrastructure to facilitate the development of innovative RD capabilities and created culture of innovation in their RD to foster the innovative RD. To sum up, some of the processes and capabilities accumulated through imitative RD can actively create problems in innovative RD where projects are designed to develop new, non traditional products and capabilities. This indicates that as firms move from imitative process RD to innovative product RD, they will have to get rid of those capabilities which are useful in process RD but can become rigidities in product RD. Therefore in case of innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms unlearning of obsolete abilities formed an important constituent in transformation of capabilities from imitative RD to innovative product RD. Firms were also needed to acquire new capabilities and combine it with existing relevant capabilities to create capabilities in innovative product RD. Next section elaborates on the learning processes involved in development of innovative RD capabilities in firms under study. Knowledge base Innovative Indian firms gradually created the capability for generic RD by assimilating and improving on process RD capabilities. The exposure to global markets, realization of future regulatory changes and creative orientation to imitative research, all facilitated the development of the research tradition in these firms. The influence of accumulated knowledge and strong chemistry skill is reflected in the RD strategies employed by all innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms in product RD. All these firms choose analogue research to venture in new drug discovery as this research strategy involves chemistry base in terms of modifying the molecular structure to produce the drug with more efficacy or less side effects. At the same time these firms began increasing their investment in RD from 1995 but this gained momentum in 2000, which resulted in building the absorptive capacity required in understanding the advances happening at the technological front. The RD intensity of Indian firms is consistently growing from 2000 although it is still much less compared to the RD intensity of large pharmaceutical firms. But according to some respondents, the cost of development of a drug in India could be a tenth of the international cost. New Knowledge Acquisition By Various Processes And Methods Innovative Indian firms started building innovative capabilities by hiring Indian scientists working overseas on innovative RD in laboratories of multinational pharmaceutical firms.In India only a handful of scientists had experience in innovative RD and these scientists became the guides for the transformation. According to the pharmaceutical consultant, these firms focused on RD scientists and started investing in them . The main constraint was lack of scientists trained in areas of medicinal chemistry and biology. To over-come this constraint, firms targeted returning post graduates and post doctorates from overseas universities. Currently around 20% of scientists working on innovative research projects have either trained at overseas universities, or have working experience abroad in MNC laboratories. Firm As RD president explains Our target was returning post grads who have gone abroad to do either PhD or post docs, they were returning and were very good. Collaborative R D has emerged as one of key mechanisms for knowledge acquisition for Indian pharmaceutical firms. These firms didnt have the skills, infrastructure or resources in-house to carry out certain functions and activities in innovative product RD. In such cases these firms collaborated and interacted with the Indian as well as overseas research institutes, universities and got work done. Firm As RD president explains the rationale behind the collaboration with research institutes and universities, Drug discovery is very complicated and you may not have everything in house, we cant and we dont have everything in house so you have to. Its a sort of collaborative approach, a collaborative process. How To Gather New Knowledge? To create an environment for creative research, firms are changing their approach towards publication and have started to understand its importance for the growth of RD. Scientists publication in conferences is now valued and encouraged more. As one senior RD scientist from firm D suggests, publication is certainly an incentive to the scientist, there is no doubt about that and we also need to showcase our science, it stimulates scientists to think. These firms are encouraging scientists to take training in new scientific tools or allowing them to pursue their academic ambitions while working in organizations. These firms have manufacturing and marketing centers all over the world including US and Europe and as a result, they could make the best research facilities accessible to their scientists. This allows scientists from these firms to pursue their academic interests and this are also encouraged by firms. These firms set up separate RD centers with state of the art analyti cal instruments, totally dedicated to innovative RD. These firms changed RD structures, started new divisions to manage IPR, as well as established new disciplinary divisions and adopted matrix style of project management in RD. Some firms even opened laboratories in developed countries to make use of the knowledge spillover and attract research talent which was reluctant to shift to India. These firms concentrated on providing more experience to these scientists by giving them opportunities to design research projects, as well as freedom to work on chosen therapeutic areas. To increase the quality of the interactions with international scientists, these firms have set up scientific advisory boards (SAB) which meet every quarter or half yearly to review the research. The SAB contains well known scientists from overseas as well as Indian academia. This forum provides an opportunity to scientists from these firms to have closer interactions with these experts, and as one of the res earch scientist from firm A suggest all of which generates valuable feedback and built the confidence of researchers. Knowledge Transfer Mechanisms Innovative Indian firms are building research networks by involving themselves in lot of joint projects with Indian as well as overseas research institutes, and research companies. These firms have set up different departments to scout opportunities for collaboration. During collaboration, these firms are sending their scientists to work in collaborators RD. This has changed the nature of the RD in these firms; from insular in-house RD, to the collaborative network model. The analysis of innovative Indian pharmaceutical firms knowledge transfer mechanisms suggest that the collaboration with research institutes and universities formed an important constituent in innovative Indian pharmaceutical efforts to develop innovative capabilities. Assimilating Various Knowledge Bases It was not enough to just hire the scientist or build new RD centers, the difficult part was to increase the cross disciplinary understanding of the scientists. To achieve that these firms focused on increasing the interactions and communications between different specialized knowledge groups by building cross-disciplinary teams of scientists from different disciplines like biology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, intellectual property rights. This firm level analysis of RD in Indian pharmaceutical firms shows that Indian firms are developing the capability in innovative RD by acquiring new components of knowledge and reconfiguring the architectural linkages between these components in a new way. The new components of knowledge were acquired by hiring new product RD experienced scientists, adopting network model of collaborative RD and increasing RD investments. Conclusion Challenges facing the industry revolve around manpower and early stage funding. There is severe paucity of trained personnel, the only solution being recruiting fresh graduates and training them on the job. Such a situation leads to rampant poaching of trained people from other companies. RD in the pharmaceutical industry is multi-faceted and draws upon the expertise of molecular biologists, synthetic and analytical chemists, genomics and proteomics specialists, pharmacologists and medical practitioners. Closely associated with these are regulatory and quality assurance functions. However, according to industry sources, pharmaceutical companies find a huge dearth of skilled resources in the critical areas of early stage drug discovery as compared to chemistry or analytical chemistry wherein the talent is easily available. A considerable challenge faced by the industry is venture capital (VC) funding, which in India is severely limited. Funding pertains to private equity (PE) players that invest when the candidate reaches the development phase. The focus is more towards the D rather the R in RD. Most venture capitalists are unwilling to invest in biotech RD. Rather, they want to fund companies whose products and markets are clearly identified or commercialization of technologies already developed.

The Paradox of Tragedy

How is it possible that human beings can derive pleasure from unpleasant states? This is the question addressed by Hume in his essay On Tragedy, which lies at the heart of a long-standing philosophical discussion on tragedy. Take horror movies, for instance. Some people are terrified while watching them, or they don’t sleep for days. So why  are they doing it? Why stay in front of the screen for a horror movie?It is clear that sometimes we enjoy being spectators of tragedies. Although this may be an everyday observation, it is a surprising one. Indeed, the view of a tragedy typically produces disgust or awe in the viewer. But disgust and awe are unpleasant states. So how is it possible that we enjoy unpleasant states?It is by no chance that Hume devoted a whole essay to the topic. The rise of aesthetics in his time took place side by side with a revival of a fascination for horror. The issue had already kept busy a number of ancient philosophers. Here is, for example, what t he Roman poet Lucretius and British philosopher Thomas Hobbes had to say on it.br/>What joy it is, when out at sea the stormwinds are lashing the waters, to gaze from the shore at the heavy stress some other man is enduring! Not that anyones afflictions are in themselves a source of delight; but to realize from what troubles you yourself are free is joy indeed. Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, Book II.From what passion proceedeth it, that men take pleasure to behold from the shore the danger of them that are at sea in a tempest, or in fight, or from a safe castle to behold two armies charge one another in the field? It is certainly in the whole sum joy. else men would never flock to such a spectacle. Nevertheless there is in it both joy and grief. For as there is novelty and remembrance of [ones] own security present, which is delight; so is there also pity, which is grief But the delight is so far predominant, that men usually are content in such a case to be spectators of the misery of their friends. Hobbes, Elements of Law, 9.19.So, how to solve the paradox? More Pleasure Than Pain One first attempt, pretty obvious, consists in claiming that the pleasures involved in any spectacle of tragedy outweigh the pains. Of course I’m suffering while watching a horror movie; but that thrill, that excitement that accompanies the experience is totally worth the travail. After all, one could say, the most delectable pleasures all come with some sacrifice; in this circumstance, the sacrifice is to be horrified.On the other hand, it seems that some people do not find particular pleasure in watching horror movies. If there is any pleasure at all, it’s the pleasure of being in pain. How can that be? Pain as Catharsis A second possible approach sees in the quest for pain an attempt to find a catharsis, that is a form of liberation, from those negative emotions. It is by inflicting upon ourselves some form of punishment that we find relief from those negative emotions and feelings that we have experienced.This is, in the end, an ancient interpretation of the power and relevance of tragedy, as that form of entertainment that is quintessential to elevate our spirits by allowing them to surpass our traumas. Pain is, Sometimes, Fun Yet another, third, approach to the paradox of horror comes from philosopher  Berys  Gaut. According to him, to be in awe or in pain, to suffer, can in some circumstances be sources of enjoyment. That is, the way to pleasure is pain. In this perspective, pleasure and pain are not really opposites: they may be two sides of the very same coin. This is because what’s bad in a tragedy is not the sensation, but the scene that elicits such sensation. Such a scene is connected to a horrific emotion, and this, in turn, elicits a sensation that we find in the end pleasurable.Whether Gaut’s ingenious proposal got it right is questionable, but the paradox of horror certainly remains one of the most entertaining subjects in philosophy.